


Small Favor

by casual_distance



Series: 30 Day Cheesy Tropes Challenge [25]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Bisexual Dean, Fluff, Gen, M/M, POV Sam Winchester, Secret Relationship, mentioned Ash, past unrequited Dean Winchester/Aaron Bass, pre Sam Winchester/Jessica Moore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 10:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4872928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casual_distance/pseuds/casual_distance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean’s finally home, even if only for a visit, and he’s bringing his best friend.  Sam can’t wait to meet him, but he’s not quite what Sam expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Favor

Sam’s excited enough about Dean coming home for the summer that he wants to wiggle in his seat. He’s fourteen, however, and Jess is sitting next to him, close enough their arms brush, so he refrains and settles for fighting a wide grin. The way Jess is smiling at him, though, tells Sam he’s failing miserably, but Jess doesn’t seem to mind. She’s just as excited as him, but that’s probably because Sam has been talking about Dean since he met her.

Dean hasn’t been home in a year and a half, sent to boarding school by their father. Sam doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the betrayal on Dean’s face when his father had thrown the brochure for the boarding school on the table at dinner and told Dean he was sick of him. Not sick of Dean’s shit, but sick of _Dean_. Sam knows he won’t ever forgive his father for that, and not only because he’d lost the one person in his life who took care of him.

Dean’s behavior had deteriorated. The first six months that Dean was away had been filled with his father’s angry yelling about the fights Dean was getting into, the way his grades had dropped, the messes Dean’s father claimed he had to clean up. Dean’s emails to Sam were short, angry, mostly consisting of “I hate this fucking place.”

Then Dean had met Cas. Sam doesn’t know much about Cas, just what Dean says in his emails, but Cas was Dean’s first friend, and over the next few months Dean stopped getting into fights, his grades went up, and his emails grew longer. He made friends, not just Cas but other people as well, and started enjoying the school. Dean had shyly admitted in his last email that Cas had convinced him to apply to college and they were both going to Kansas State, Dean having earned a sports scholarship to pay for it.

So when Dean had said he was bringing Cas home with him for the summer before they head to Kansas State to get settled, Sam had been delighted. He was getting his brother back and he was getting to meet someone who knew- just as Sam did- how great Dean was.

Jess leans into him unexpectedly, and Sam feels his face heat up. He looks at her, wide-eyed, and she grins at him. 

“Is that him?” She points.

Sam’s head snaps over, and sure enough, Dean is coming through the door, tugging on the sleeve of a dark haired boy- Cas, Sam guesses- and grinning widely at him.

Sam jumps up from his chair, Jo on his heels, and makes his way to Dean.

“Dean!”

Dean spins, letting go of Cas, and reaches out to grab Sam and pull him into a tight hug, pounding him on the back. 

“Sammy! Goddamn, it’s good to see you.” He pulls back and looks Sam up and down. “How the fuck did you get so big?”

Sam laughs, and then Jo is pushing herself between him and Dean. 

“You jerk!” She flings herself at him, and Dean laughs, catching her in a tight hug.

“Ease up, Jo. I’m not going anywhere!”

She huffs and punches him in the shoulder, leaning back to look curiously at Cas. Dean catches the look and pulls away, hooking an arm around Cas’s neck and tugging him forward.

“Guys, this is Cas. Cas, Sammy and Jo.”

Cas smiles widely and reaches out to take the hand Sam had extended toward him. “It’s good to meet you, Sam. Jo. Dean’s told me a lot about you both.”

Sam grins. “Yeah, he’s told us a lot about you, too.”

Dean scoffs, but where he would have once been angrily embarrassed, he’s now only smiling and blushing. He lets go of Cas and shoves at Sam’s shoulder. “Alright, alright. Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

Jo catches Cas’s arm and tugs him toward the tables they had pushed together at the back of the Roadhouse to make room for their whole group. Sam turns to follow, but Dean grabs his arm and pulls him to a halt.

“Hey, Sam, who, uh, who’s here tonight?”

“Me, Jo, Jess, Charlie, Ash, Aaron- why?” Dean winces at Aaron’s name, though Sam isn’t sure why. Aaron had a crush on Dean, sure, but Dean had always been kind to him, letting him down easy and watching boundaries. 

“Uh, no one else?” he asks with a pointed look, and then Sam gets it. 

“Aunt Ellen is here. She said we could have all the food we wanted.”

Dean’s face lightens and he pushes at Sam’s shoulder. “Cool. Let’s go party- although I don’t know how much of a party it will be without booze.”

Sam snorts and lets Dean guide him to the table. Sam reclaims his seat between Jess and Jo, introducing Jess to Dean, while Dean sits down across from him, between Cas and Charlie. Cas ends up across from Jo and next to Aaron.

Jo shoots a wide, mock-innocent grin at Cas, and Sam groans. Cas takes in their exchange, and looks amused when Jo leans forward and asks, “So, Cas, what did you do to get sent to Mount Holy Buttfuck?” 

Dean’s boarding school was called Mount Holy Bluffs, but Dean, in the early days of his enrollment, had re-named it. Cas laughs, looking delighted, while Dean groans.

“I enjoyed buttfucking other guys,” Cas answers, sending Jo into peals of laughter. Next to him, Aaron chokes on his soda. When he’s got his coughing under control Aaron asks, “Your parents sent you to a boarding school for being gay?”

Cas shrugs. “Well, my dad actually sent me to a gay reprogramming camp first. Me and my brother Gabriel. When Gabriel found out that Dad was intending to send me away, he came out to our dad as a polyamorous pansexual. Dad did not take kindly to it and expanded his plans for me to include Gabriel.” Cas smirks. “That lasted only as long as it took Gabriel to decide that he had a thing for not only the headmaster, but also the headmaster’s wife, and set out to seduce them both.”

Cas leans forward and picks up a couple of mushroom caps, dipping them into the ranch sauce and popping them into his mouth. Dean laughs at everyone’s dumbfounded expression. He leans over to set his elbow on Cas’s shoulder, bumping up against him.

“Don’t leave ‘em hanging, Cas, man. You gotta tell them the best part.” Dean smirks at Sam and winks.

Jo leans forward at this. “Best part?” she asks.

Cas tilts his head at Dean and raises an eyebrow, which has Dean grinning. He turns to Jo, leaning forward across Cas’s body to stage-whisper conspiratorially, “Gabe now lives in New York… with the headmaster and his wife!”

Sam’s mouth drops open, and Jo howls with laughter. Jess giggles next to him.

“What happened to the camp?” Aaron asks at the same time that Charlie grabs Dean and drags his attention back to her and Ash’s discussion.

Sam’s attention wanders away from Cas and Aaron so he can study Dean as he laughs and chats with Charlie and Ash. He can’t remember the last time he’d seen Dean smile, let alone smile as easily and warmly as he has tonight. Sam swallows tightly, pushing back a sudden surge of anger at his father, and focuses on just watching Dean, determined to enjoy his light-heartedness.

Charlie squeals and grabs Dean’s arm, shaking him back and forth. “Oh. My. God. Dean. You didn’t tell me you got into LARPing up there!”

Sam watches as Cas is jostled back and forth by Dean’s elbow where it is still planted on his shoulder, hand hanging down against Cas’s chest. Cas continues laughing at something Jo has said, but he reaches up to wrap his hand around Dean’s wrist to still the movement. Dean shakes Charlie off his arm, but leaves Cas’s hand where it is.

“Holy crap, Charlie, ease up,” Dean laughs. “Yeah, Gabriel was into it and he dragged us along to check it out. Cas isn’t into it so much.”

“But you love it.” Charlie bounces in her chair. “We’re playing a game in a couple of weeks- you are coming with me!” Charlie declares, poking Dean in the chest.

Dean laughs again, curling his shoulder inward to protect his chest. “Sure thing, Charlie. When did you even get into it anyway? I don’t remember you mentioning it before.”

Jo’s elbow digs into Sam’s side, dragging his attention away from Charlie’s answer. Jo widens her eyes at him and glances pointedly at Cas. Sam turns to look and it takes a moment to understand what had caught Jo’s attention. Cas is angled toward Aaron slightly as they continue to talk, though the conversation has moved on to their college plans. Cas is still holding Dean’s wrist- if what Cas is doing can be considered _holding_. As he nods at Aaron’s justification for going out of state, Cas strokes his fingers along the back of Dean’s wrist and hand, pausing occasionally to curl his fingers around Dean’s wrist before he starts stroking again. Dean doesn’t pull away or react to the touch.

Sam grabs Jess’s wrist to pull her away from the LARPing conversation and gives her the same look Jo had given him. She looks over just in time to see Dean stretch forward across Charlie to shake his fist in mock-rage at Ash’s face. The movement slides Dean’s arm across Cas’s shoulder so that Cas strokes the backs of Dean’s fingers. Cas taps Dean’s knuckles and Dean, without looking over, without even hesitating at the silent request, relaxes his fist, spreads his fingers, and lets Cas slot his own fingers in between Dean’s.

And just that easily, Sam finds himself staring at his brother holding hands with Cas. Dean is holding hands with Cas- who is a guy. Jo’s elbow digs into his side. He tightens his grip on Jess’s wrist. It’s so casual, so without thought, that Sam is certain- 100%, absolutely certain- this is something they do all the time. It’s probably also something they did not mean to do since no one at this table had known before this moment that they were dating.

Dean shifts back in his seat, arm pushing forward again, and Sam looks over in time to see Aaron’s eyes drop as their hands come into view. Sam winces, because he’d sat through some very awkward conversations both with Dean and with Aaron about Dean’s sexuality, and the end result had been Dean claiming he was straight and not interested in Aaron, even though Aaron had felt otherwise. 

Aaron stares at Dean and Cas’s joined hands, the sentence he was in the middle of dropping off as he gapes a little.

Cas frowns and asks, “Aaron?” He follows Aaron’s gaze downward. When he realizes what Aaron is looking at, Cas blushes bright red. His fingers tighten around Dean’s for a moment and then he’s sliding his hand free and setting it in his lap, eyes focused downward. The movement’s enough to catch Dean’s attention, and he turns to look at Cas.

“Somethin’ wrong, Cas?” Dean frowns slightly as he takes in the way Cas stares down at his lap while Aaron stares at them both. Dean glances over at Sam and realizes that Sam, Jo, and Jess are also gaping. Sam can see the moment it registers with Dean, eyes widening. His face turns red and he slides his arm off Cas’s shoulder. He clears his throat. On his other side, Charlie and Ash have gone silent, watching with confusion.

Dean clears his throat. “Um, so, okay.” He stops and licks his lips. He glances at Cas who is still staring down at his lap. “Well, this wasn’t the way I wanted to tell you guys, but Cas and I are, uh, dating.”

Cas looks up at Dean, and there’s something in his face that makes Sam frown. Aaron shifts in his seat, setting his elbow on the table.

“So, what. Are you gay _now_?” he asks, voice hard and angry.

Dean grimaces while Cas turns to look at him with narrowed eyes. 

“Uh, no. I’m bisexual,” Dean answers.

“Since when?” Aaron demands, and now Cas is outright glaring. Aaron ignores him. Sam understands, kind of, but he’s not sure calling Dean out in front of Dean’s boyfriend is the time to do it.

Dean’s face contorts in irritation briefly then settles into guilt, but before Dean can say anything, Cas is leaning toward Aaron, blocking Aaron’s line of sight. 

“I understand that you feel rejected by Dean, but Dean was not as lucky as you were in having understanding parents.”

“Cas,” Dean says, tugging on Cas’s shoulder to pull him back.

“No, Dean.” Cas turns to him. “I am sorry that we...that our relationship was disclosed in such a manner, but John Winchester is a bigot who brainwashed you into hating yourself. Your friends should understand that coming to terms with who you are is not something to be shamed.” He shoots another dark look at Aaron. “And you don’t owe anyone anything for not doing it sooner.”

Cas pushes his chair back and stands up. He looks at all of them in turn, frowning angrily. “For the record, I was Dean’s friend first. I would stand here and say the same thing even if that was all we still were. If you cannot see the difference in Dean as he is now against how he was a year ago when I met him, then you are either lying or not truly his friend. I will not let anyone take away the sense of self Dean has fought for.”

Cas glances at Dean briefly before striding toward the bathroom. Dean stares after him long enough that Sam starts to worry he won’t go after Cas, so he leans forward and says, “I like him.”

Dean jerks around to look at him, eyebrows raised in surprised. “What?”

“I like him. You should go after him and bring him back here.”

“Sam’s right,” Aaron says. “I’m sorry I-”

Dean waves away Aaron’s apology even as he climbs to his feet. “Nah, man, I knew what it was about. Expected it. Cas just- he’s got a thing about-” Dean cuts himself off and clears his throat awkwardly. “He’ll be fine after I talk to him.” Dean gives Aaron a tight smile and follows after Cas.

They sit in silence for a moment before Charlie squeals and wriggles in her seat. “I fucking knew it! I knew as soon as they walked in they were together.”

“Right!” Jess leans across the table. “They were so freaking obvious.”

Sam groans and turns to Jo just in time to watch her lean forward to ask Aaron if he’s alright. 

“Yeah.” He grimaces with a sigh. “Just took me by surprise. Dean just…” Aaron shakes his head. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter either way.”

“Hey, man.” Jo stretches across the table to pat Aaron on the shoulder. “Sucks, I know.”

Aaron snorts a laugh. “I’ll just join the club of Dean Winchester rejects.”

Sam groans again. “How does Dean manage to cause trouble even when he’s not causing trouble?” Sam asks of no one in particular, causing Jo and Aaron both laugh.

Sam smiles and looks toward the bathrooms to see Cas appear in the opening of the hallway, posture definitely more relaxed than it had been when he’d stormed away from the table. Dean follows after him, but before they get too far, Dean catches him by the arm and pulls him around. Sam watches as Dean steps up close and presses a kiss to his mouth. It’s sweet and simple, but Dean’s beaming when he pulls back, and Cas, when he turns back around to lead the way after taking Dean’s hand, is smiling just as widely.

**Author's Note:**

> Still on vacation. :) I got to visit Walter White's and Jesse Pinkman's houses! I ate at Los Pollos Hermanos! I got a milkshake from the Dog House! *is dead*


End file.
